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Wednesday, 29 October 2014

Tarts or balls? A tale of two recipes

So, Adrian is off on his travels again (Belgium, Prague, London, St
Albans), leaving James and I to our own devices. This has, so far, involved finishing off The Walking
Dead (we have agreed that maybe we need some lighter viewing having fought our
blood-splattered way through a whole series in a few days) and eating Pecan and Chocolate
tart.

James made the latter as the last hurrah for his Duke of Edinburgh award
and it is disgracefully good. Okay, so
the shop didn’t have pecans so he made do with walnuts and mixed chopped nuts
but still…

Oh. You want the recipe? Fair
enough. Here goes…

Pecan(ish) and Chocolate Tart

Rub together 120g chilled cubed butter with 165g plain flour and 25g
ground almonds. Stir in 55g castor sugar
and then break a medium egg into the mix.
Work gently into a soft dough and tip onto a lightly floured surface and
flatten (my grandmother would, of course, have washed her hands in cold water
first, and used a slab of marble to keep it all cold). Wrap in cling film and chill for three
hours.

Roll out pasty to about 3mm and line a greased 25cm tart tin. Back into the fridge with the little bugger. And we wonder why we all buy ready-made pastry?

Now melt 80g dark chocolate and 45g of cubed butter in a bain
marie (you know, a bowl suspended over a saucepan of simmering water). In a separate saucepan combine
160g of granulated sugar and 235ml of golden syrup – stir like fury so it doesn’t
catch until it is all melted. Beat
together three medium eggs and whisk into the chocolate/butter mixture until
smooth. Now fold in the hot syrup
mixture, whisking all the while.

Add in a teaspoon of vanilla extract and 235g of nuts (ideally pecans
but your choice – I’d probably eschew the mixed nuts but the walnuts are damn
fine).

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and put baking tray in for about five
minutes to get hot. Now place pastry
case on the baking tray and pour over the nut and goo filling. Bake for about 40 minutes until the pastry is
golden brown and the filling is set.
Cool and eat.

Now then. Yes, it tastes
delicious but, for the love of all that’s sacred, will you just LOOK at those
ingredients. It’s sugar on sugar on
sugar. The nuts are a saving grace (the
protein will slow down the sugar rush) but even so… It has made my teeth sing and my pulse race and I've got the start of a killer headache.

So, let’s find an alternative. Something that is still really yummy but will
actually help your body rather than sledgehammer it. So I asked Gertrud for the recipe for the energy
powerballs she serves as snacks at Yobaba Lounge (report coming soon on Queen
of Retreats) and here it is…

Gertrud’s recipe for peanut butter, banana and honey powerballs

1 cup ground almonds

1 cup ground walnuts or hazelnuts

2 heaped tblsp crunchy plain peanut butter

1 heaped tblsp creamy honey (ideally not runny)

2 dried bananas, finely chopped

1 tsp cinnamon

Juice of half a small lemon

zest of half an orange (optional)

1/2 tblsp coconut oil (optional)

Sesame seeds

Mix together all of the ingredients (apart from the sesame seeds). Don't be shy, get in there with your hands. Make
sure the honey, peanut butter and coconut oil are well mixed in. The mixture
should not be too wet or sticky, but hold together when you press it into
form. If it's too wet, just add ground almonds. Form into balls
(should get 20-30), roll in the sesame seeds. Put in the fridge for half an
hour.

Inspiration: Instead of the 1 cup of ground walnuts or hazelnuts, you
can add a mixture of milled seeds (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seed).
To mill the seeds, add them to your high speed blender, and shortly blast them
at top speed. You can do the same with nuts if you don't have any ground. Add
other dried fruits and flavours - Morello cherries with raw cacao works a treat!

So, there you have it. Tart or
ball? Up to you. Because there are always choices in life,
huh?

4 comments:

Reading the recipe for bananaballs :D (just when you thought it couldn't be harder to know when to stop writing the word 'banananana') I noticed something in it you could try including in your chocolate-pecan sugar-bomb - cinnamon. I recalled reading that it helps maintain control of blood sugar, and since using it in virtually everything it's turned me into one of the sanest people I know regarding my self-control around food - scary thought. Wondering if I'd made the whole thing up, I googled it just now and found a more recent article - http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/cinnamon-and-benefits-for-diabetes - I'm not diabetic and I think I originally read about it in some advice on dieting. I don't think I would take it as a supplement as it's cheap and I like chucking a sprinkling of it into anything I'm making, from fruit smoothies to choc chip cupcakes to bolognese to curry - it seems to complement everything. And I think it helps me to know when I'm full :) Lisa xxx

@Lisa - yup, I remember reading that cinnamon was good for diabetes...didn't know about the weight loss effect though. Good tip, thanks! However, I'll pass - I don't mind cinnamon in savoury stuff (curries and chillis and wotnot) but can't abide it in sweet stuff. Bleeaugh. :) xxxx

@Frances - he is pretty good, has to be said. Pecans are relatively new in the UK - we definitely didn't have them when I was growing up. :)And no, you're quite right - not remotely mandatory - but somehow we managed it (in under 24 hours). :) xx